Editorial: Take a bow, Mr. McDonald

Published 8:11 pm, Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Support for gay marriage costs an independent-minded state senator an election.

THE STAKES:

The better part of valor now would to be to step aside and let a rival fight for that cause.

What to say to state Sen. Roy McDonald, whose act of courage in voting to legalize gay marriage last year has now cost him the nomination of the party that used to be so glad to see him win re-election again and again?

If it were, Mr. McDonald would be secure in a Senate seat from which he could safely vote his conscience, rather than bend a knee to obsolete views on civil rights. Instead, Mr. McDonald stands defeated by a Republican rival who, while able in the affairs of government, was enticed to run McDonald out of office by those who elevate one issue above all: preserving discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.

Oh, the gloating that endures in the quarters of the extremists and other special interests that can't accept the societal benefit — not to mention the simple human fairness — of giving gays the same right to marry as everyone else. Of the four Senate Republicans responsible for the passage of gay marriage last year, three have paid for it — none more so than Mr. McDonald.

He lost his primary. Sen. Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie came precariously close to losing his, too. And Sen. James Alesi of Rochester didn't even try to get re-elected this year.

It's democracy in action. We elect people to do what they think is right for the citizens they represent. But those citizens have the last word. They can vote out the likes of Mr. McDonald when their sense of what's right is so radically different from his.

Mr. McDonald could fight on, since he'll be on the November ballot as the Independence Party candidate. The peculiarities, if not outright absurdities, of New York's election laws permit one candidate to represent as many parties as he or she wins over.

Someone as tenacious as Mr. McDonald must find it tempting to wage a third-party fight for his own seat in a district that leans right but has plenty of voters to the left and center. Yet the unfairness of political life is this: What would then be a three-way race for the 43rd Senate District almost surely would be won by the Republican nominee, Kathy Marchione.

The fact is that the best hope of having someone enlightened enough to allow gay marriage to represent the district would be for Mr. McDonald to step aside and allow Democrat Robin Andrews to face off against Ms. Marchione.

Ah, the irony. Ms. Andrews is more than a proponent of gay marriage. She is an example of it. Her marriage to Chris Lastovicka last year is a living and loving proof of the good work of Roy McDonald.

Mr. McDonald's career in politics has been marked by that cause, obviously, but also by his unyielding support for better care for the mentally ill and the disabled. Earlier in his life, he served his country as a member of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division during the Vietnam War.

And there he was last year, fending off pressure to stop the legalization of gay marriage:

"I'm trying to do the right thing," he said. "I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it."